Western Canada’s summertime gas glut

Pipeline maintenance is restricting routes to market, leading some producers to shut in production as prices fall

Gas prices have been hitting record highs everywhere since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Western Canada the notable exception. In a pattern repeated since 2017, prices have been weak in the region since spring, even going negative on occasion at key pricing points in Alberta and British Columbia (BC), and leading producers to shut in gas production in recent months. Barring government intervention, this summertime weakness in gas prices could persist until the first phase of the Shell-led LNG Canada export project comes online in 2025, according to Martin King, senior analyst at Houston-based consultancy RBN Energy. Summertime blues “The summers of 2017, 2018, 2019, a little in 2021, an